UEP sued for misleading consumers about hen welfare

The HSUS has accused the UEP and the eggs companies of engaging in false and deceptive advertising to mislead consumers about the conditions that egg-laying hens live in on factory farms.

The HSUS says that the UEP, MoArk, LLC, and R.W. Sauder, Inc., are misleading consumers into thinking that egg s bearing the “United Egg Producers Certified” logo means that the hens that produced those eggs live in a animal-welfare friendly environment, which the HSUS does not agree with. The Society says the hens live in restrictive, barren cages in which they can’t perform many of their natural behaviours, including perching, nesting, foraging or even spreading their wings.

“The egg factory farms know consumers don’t want hens confined in tiny cages where they can barely move for their entire lives, but rather than changing their ways, they’ve just changed their ad campaigns,” said Jonathan Lovvorn, VP and chief counsel of Animal Protection Litigation at the HSUS. “This industry is telling consumers what they want to hear, but behind the scenes, millions of birds are suffering some of the worst factory farm abuses imaginable.”